The Linux version of mencoder does not support ASS fonts (Like if you have a MKV file the subtitles don't show due to the encoding, or they get stuck on the screen)I rebuilt a Ubuntu 11.10 box and forgot to recompile. All my subtitles disappeared.

btanoue wrote:The Linux version of mencoder does not support ASS fonts

I guess you mean that the default compile of mencoder doesn't support ASS subtitles in Ubuntu? It is possible to recomile mencoder yourself and change the compilation instructions from '--disable-ass-internal' to '--enable-ass-internal' ...

I have not yet done this myself, but it should be trivial to use that compilation switch...

From what I understand This will install the daily builds of mencoder from the Motu Media PPA. They are said to be more unstable, but the only problem I ever had is that update manger wants to update every day. I fixed that System>Administration>Software Sources>Updates>Check for updates "weekly" I have a dual Xeon dualcore server. I went from barley being able to transcode 720p (after buffering) to watching Big Buck Bunny in 1080 (after buffering). Let me know how it works.

The only problem I still have is, even though mencoder uses all cores, it does not maximize its CPU usage, meaning It only uses about 70% of total CPU. If anyone could give me some pointers, I would appreciate it.

I've always seen multicore mencoder working. Its always about 168% (I have an older Core2duo Dell E520 Hand me down)That was from the straight ubuntu repo as well.

I think there is also a way to pin a package in debian/ubuntu, but I haven't done it yet.There might be an option in synaptic to do this.

My other wondering is that although mencoder is using >100% CPU utilization, maybe that is the max due to the high amount of I/O the system processes need in the Intel Architecture.So it might never be that you will never see 100% unless you do a mencode without any Ethernet I/O's. Try it and let me know.(Yes I know reading and writing to disk is an I/O as well)

I'm wondering if mencoder just can't use the full capacity of the machine.Some programs multi-thread very well while others don't. Perhaps Handbrake is very parallel and therefore work can be split up between cores easier.Or maybe it lends itself to Hyperthreading better? Who knows.

Is it possible to check this build on a Windows box for comparison's sake?